New owners of this popular Columbus restaurant are fusing soul food & Cambodian cuisines
The new owners of The Mixed Dish look forward to fusing cultures as they take over the popular Columbus restaurant.
Mak Son, a veteran who served in Afghanistan, along with his partners Charles and Tenny Ball began officially operating the restaurant on Oct. 1, allowing the former owner, Kenneth Walden, to step away from the business.
When Walden was looking for new owners for the restaurant, he wanted to sell to someone who was local and interested in transforming the Mixed Dish into a larger venture that offers cuisines from different cultures.
The new co-owners are up to the challenge.
“We’re hard working people,” Son told the Ledger-Enquirer. “We understand the concept of business, so we’re going to do whatever it takes to keep people happy and want to come support (The Mixed Dish).”
Creating a community in Columbus
Son, a Purple Heart recipient, was brought to Columbus to recover from injuries sustained from a roadside bomb in 2011.
His family is Cambodian, and before coming back to the United States, Son had been stationed in Germany for 12 years.
He hadn’t had Cambodian food in a long time.
Son reached out on social media asking people where he could find the cuisine, and Tenny’s brother invited him over to eat. That’s how the three future business partners met, and began getting to know each other at cookouts.
It was during one of these cookouts where Tenny expressed her dream of owning a restaurant one day to share their culture’s food with others.
“There’s no Cambodian food around here,” Tenny told the L-E. “You barely see any Cambodian people here, and my family is like that root. And they cook amazing dishes. My first thought was ‘let’s open a restaurant here in Columbus.’”
Son was interested, but the timing wasn’t right for the group.
At the time, Son was launching his first business, Fur-Baby Pet Services, in Columbus. While he was growing Fur-Baby, Charles and Tenny spent the time progressing in their IT careers.
“We kept tabs,” Son said. “And I watched them work hard and build up great careers and family. I did the same thing on the other side.”
Fur-Baby has continued to do well, Son said, but he’s come to the realization recently that he couldn’t grow it any bigger because of health issues and other personal reasons. His 18-year-old son Jordan told his father that he wanted to enter the family’s dog training business.
Son, who’s heart hardened during the six years he spent fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, cried when Jordan told him this.
“It takes a lot to get me that emotional,” Son said. “But it’s the proudest thing a father could experience because I did give him the opportunity to go out on his own doing whatever he wants…I never expected him to fall right in.”
It will be awhile before the change occurs, Son said, because Jordan has more education and training to undergo before he’s ready.
But this development left Son free to pursue other ventures — like the Mixed Dish.
Realizing the dream
Son had already begun preparing to open a restaurant in Uptown Columbus, he said, when Walden put the Mixed Dish up for sale last month.
From there, events moved quickly.
The decision to purchase The Mixed Dish was a “no-brainer,” Son said, because the restaurant was already established.
“All I’ve got to do is just come on in and keep it going,” he said. “And improve on the operation as much as possible.”
Son called Tenny and Charles as soon as he saw the opportunity.
“You remember your dream,” he asked Tenny. “Guess what I got.”
“Are you serious?,” Tenny asked him.
She quickly brought the idea up to Charles who quickly agreed that the couple should join Son in this venture.
“Tenny and I have been married almost six years,” Charles said. “And we have had this discussion plenty of times. It was always her dream to open up that family restaurant and deliver to the community that Cambodian dish.”
The Mixed Dish was the perfect opportunity, he said, so he supported it.
Now that the restaurant is under their ownership, it will temporarily close for just over a week to help make sure the transition is stable, Son said. The Mixed Dish will open up again on Oct. 10, he said.
For the next couple of months, fans of the eatery can expect things to stay the same while the group works on a new menu that represents the multicultural nature of the new owners.
“We respect and love soul food,” Son said. “But there’s soul food in every culture, and it’s going to a fusion. Stay tuned for that.”
Once the new menu items are selected, there will be a grand reopening, Son said. People can stay up-to-date on the latest information on the restaurant’s Facebook page, he said.
Son, Charles and Tenny look forward to continuing The Mixed Dish in Columbus, Son said. The diverse community in the city is something the business partners believe The Mixed Dish can reflect, he said.
“I love Columbus,” Son said. “It’s a very diverse community, and I love that it is. I feel very comfortable raising a family that is a mixed dish in this environment. This is home for us.”
This story was originally published October 3, 2023 at 5:00 AM.
